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Best Project Cancellation or Delay: The Official Nominees

Note: Voting for the Swampies has ended. See the bottom of this post (above the comments) for a link to the results!

Our second category in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate has its official slate of candidates!

As the nominees are announced, voting can begin. You can cast your vote by entering a comment below or by sending Swamplot a private message indicating your preferences. More details about voting rules for the awards are available here.

The nominees for Best Project Cancellation or Delay are . . .

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1. Archstone Memorial Heights Redevelopment. Earlier this year, Archstone began work on its secretive 5-year plan to redevelop the 12-year-old apartment complex along Washington between Studemont and Heights Blvd. And then? “Management indicated that they would start in the second quarter, and here it is year’s end with the plans on an unannounced hold. The hold, alas, was not soon enough to prevent the stripping of fixtures and air conditioners from two of the three buildings slated for Phase 1. The final building was lucky to have been untouched long enough to be used as temporary housing while Hurricane Ike forced tenants from other buildings.”

4. Turnberry Tower Houston. “What a shame the Turnberry got flushed down the toilet. Just supplying the fixtures for all those bathrooms would have provided a needed jolt to the economy.”

5. Sonoma. “First there were delays as Randall Davis and Lamesa Properties tried to convince the city that it should close a public street in the Rice Village and sell it to them; then there was the announcement that Davis would build phase II before phase I; and then there were more delays as he tried to sell enough units to get enough financing to start even one of the phases. And finally, there was the announcement that the project was on hold, but that they now have until 2015 to do something with the property. Meanwhile, a perfectly good mixed-use building with several popular restaurants and hangout spots was torn down, and the neighbors get to look at a work in progress for the next 7 years.”

6. Ashby Highrise. “The easiest way to start a fight on Swamplot? Just post some news about the Ashby Highrise. I hate to think what will happen if the project goes ahead — or if it’s killed. Clearly, the Ashby delay is the best delay of them all this year, because the limbo has managed to keep things relatively peaceful.”

While I would normally say Ashby, anything that knocks Randall down a few notches (how much lower can he get, though?) takes my vote. I’m still bitter that he thanked everyone from KBH to his dog at the rededication of The Rice, but never thanked the residents. Brilliant!

I’d like to cast one vote for Sonoma, and one for Ashby, and both for completely selfish and short-sighted reasons. As someone who has to commute through the (already somewhat congested) area, the status quo is fine with me. I’m all for progress unless it means I have to spend more time in my car.

Seriously, though, if we’re going for irony, these two projects are contenders. One has set off suburban yard warfare and the other one has resulted in a hole that looks a bit like a warzone itself.

I would normally vote for Turnberry, because its cancellation saved my view ;), but really it should get the award for “What Were They Thinking and Who Loaned Them Money for it?” So, my vote goes to Regent Square because I truly like this plan.

Sonoma is at the top measurement of my puckerometer. With lakes of investment cash for really lame concepts drying up – maybe a degree of sensibilty will creep in? But then again, I’m always the optimist.

It was disgusting of Randall Davis to tear down a charming and popular city block for his “vision.” Even more disgusting that now everyone has to wait for 7 years, while he flaps around trying to get financing.

Ashby simply because it was and is fun to watch the mayor play king. Should be even more fun to watch him play king in court. Rumor is the developers are filing suit after the holidays. But Sonoma was and is fun simply because it’s fun to watch the mayor play king. Odd how he tells the same neighborhood they can’t do anything about Sonoma and then proceeds to issue permits and then tells the same neighborhood they can do something about Ashby and proceeds to pull permits already issued and harass the developers and generally make a total ass of himself along with a number of other elected officials. Most people hold their nose driving along Bissonnet. The attitude is overwhelming.

Ashby High Rise. Some of the projects on here are simply casualties of the economy, but this delay is the result of a tremendous coordinated effort by the residents of Boulevard Oaks and Southampton. The logo of the cartoon looming high rise is actually enough on its own to justify voting for this.

The one I am happiest about? Turnberry. That’s a terrible design and the location was doomed to fail from the start.

However, the BEST as it relates to “only in Houston” has to be Sonoma. Viable businesses forced out and a funky mid-century bldg too and now we get a clusterf$&% of a street grid scarred by chain link fencing and dirt.

Ashby gets my #1 vote partly because the project has been thwarted but also because of the civic solidarity of the neighborhood residents, and the responsiveness of the City to our concerns. Sonoma has to be a close second, though. I want Bolsover back!

Ashby High Rise. May the delay eventually result in a cancellation or severe modification to those outlandish plans. How would those developers, both West U residents I understand, feel if it was in THEIR back yard?

My vote for worst project and therefore best delay is the Ashby High Rise. Notably greed driven, designed to be fueled by consumption of the niceness around it, and now in the ditch. Couldn’t happen in a more appropriate way.

Ashby. Ashby. Ashby. A misguided and counterproductive idea from the start. Nobody wants it. No room for it. No place for the inevitable traffic. Wrong project, wrong location, wrong, wrong wrong. Did I mention wrong?

My vote is for the Ashby High Rise. This 23 story project is completely out of character with the surrounding historic neighborhood and the surrounding infrastructure is not adequate to support the increased traffic flow.

The cancellation of this project may actually be good for both the neighborhood and the developers given the economic downturn of the past year.

Ashby High Rise because it should never, ever be allowed to happen in such a beautiful residential neighborhood, because it will make driving down Bissonet to the heart of the Museum District a nightmare and because it is an issue that is bigger than just its effect on this immediate neighborhood.

The Ashby Highrise is the best project to cancel. The proposed construction of an over 20-story building on a two-lane street will hurt the neighborhood and Houston commuters. This project is an excellent example of why Houston needs a plan for responsible development.

Ashby Highrise has to be at the top of the list….well, it’s a crowded ‘top of the list’ though with all the other crap that these developers are trying to get by with. Yes, Houston is the 4th largest city in the nation but why in the world we think we have to have highrises and midrises and apartments out the wazoo is beyond me… But yes, Ashby has to one of the top idiot jobs lately – maybe those clowns who want to build it could build it so it looks down on THEIR back yards and have all those folks watching every move they make or have to get out and fight all the traffic it will create…no thank you!

Ashby High rise for sure! It never made sense to put this in the middle of a residential neighborhood on a two lane street. I hope it stays dead. I really liked the concept of the Sonoma project and am sorry that it won’t be a go. Now we’ll have to look at a mud pit for the forseeable future.

Kristi and I vote for the Ashby high rise (hopefully) delay to become Houston’s best ever building development cancellation. The developers, professed lovers of our Southampton and Boulevard Oaks neighborhoods, would destroy the very fabric of our large, unostentatious, non-trafficked neighborhood. Nothing about the Ashby high rise, proposed for the corner of Bissonnet (already heavily trafficked) and Ashby (narrow short street with parked cars), would help the area. It should never have been planned for this location. It deserves the #1 award!

The Ashby High-Rise well deserves the “Best Cancellation or (endless)Delay” designation. Never appropriate for the low rise mainly residential neighborhood, never reasonable for a two lane street very close to capacity, it would have an adverse impact on the area and set a bad precedent for development in other parts of the city.

But a clear second choice would be Sonoma. Walgreens in the Rice Village is closed because of Sonoma. And the building that was located in the 2400 block of Bolsover (that included the Nit Noi restaurant) ended up the same place as Sonoma’s financing, in the dirt.

Ashby HighRise for sure! The best/worst case of “Equity Theft” ever attempted in Houston, in which Buckhead Investment Partners (whose first name is only one letter away from perfect) try to line their own pockets with the reduced values of the surrounding properties. Attachments that big deserve SOME kind of recognition…

#6 – Ashby Highrise has our vote as the most poorly conceived building project imaginable. To erect this tower in the midst of a beautiful neighborhood is a disgraceful notion. Houston is trying valiantly to establish itself as a first class city. This helter skelter unregulated development would never ever be allowed in Boston, New York, Chicago, etc. These great cities take pride in historical values and neighborhoods. My wife and I are totally against the Ashby Highrise Project.

The Ashby High-Rise deserves the “Best Cancellation or (endless)Delay” designation. Located on a two-lane street that is already very close to capacity, the building was never appropriate for the low rise mainly residential neighborhood. I hope we can continue to make it impossible to complete this obnoxious project.